Hi Mom!!

 How are you? Can you believe that it is the end of May already?? Time has flown by!! I got another letter from Nancy and she sent me another check. I'll be sending that to you so you can put it in my account. That is so cool about Nicolas Sargent going to Ghana Africa!!! That is so exciting!! That's so nice of Dave and Shauna to go visit Dad's grave. How was the concert that you went to on Friday?? Who was performing?

 We haven't been teaching too much this week. We are still working on finding people to teach. We went on exchanges on Saturday and we went out tracting most of the day. We found a few people that want us to come back and we are going back to see them this week. One man we found trying to contact someone else. He told us the lady we were looking for was deceased. We told him how we believe our families can be together forever and he said he wanted us to come back this next Saturday. I can't wait to teach him more. It has been raining here the whole week. We finally got to see the sun this morning. Everyone is telling us that it is supposed to be sunny and hot this week. Sister Taylor and I were just happy to see the sun. We helped the ward mission leader's wife this week. They are painting their house because they are moving to Boston and so we helped them paint. It was awesome!! They are moving to Boston because he got a job at the Boston Temple as one of the engineers. Everyone in the ward is sad they are leaving. We are still teaching a couple of less actives. We are acutally going to dinner at the Wilcox's today. That is the family that sent you the picture on Mother's Day. They take good care of us!

 I have been thinking a lot this week on how important knowledge is for us to be the kind of people that God wants us to be. I'm so grateful that I know the scriptures are true and that I know the scripture stories. Having a knowledge of the scriptures helps me be a better missionary and help me become more like Christ. Thank you so much for everything you have taught me!!! Will you look up Knowledge in the Bible Dictionary? Knowledge of Spiritual things is essential for our Salvation!! There is so much for me to learn. The Church is true! We are so blessed to have the Gospel and for being able to live it!! The Savior is where we can turn for comfort! I love you! Have a great week! I miss you!!

  Love,

   Sister Griffin 

Mom!  How are you doing? I hope this week is  better than this last week. I was thinking about Dad on Friday. I was doing really good until Sister Wilkey text me to let me know that she and President were thinking of me and praying for me. It ended up being a really good day! We are getting to know the area. This last Tuesday, we went to New Hampshire for a new missionary training and on Thursday we had zone conference in Augusta. Zone Conference was amazing!! President and Sister Wilkey talked about some of the truths they learned on their mission. This is the last Zone Conference for the Wilkeys. It was good but it made me realize how much I'm going to miss them. They are amazing!!! 

 This week we met a man that couldn't have us come in and share a message with him because they were busy cleaning but he told us we could come back another time. We also met a lady that wants to do her family history. We met her when we were helping a ward member with a yard sale. She has met with the missionaries before and she wants to meet with us. We are wanting to help her with it. She seems really nice. We are teaching a couple of less actives. We are still trying to find people but we are doing our best. 

 That stinks about Ben Smith leaving!! Hopefully Ben Lomond doesn't fall apart after he leaves. We had a regional stake conference yesterday. It was broadcast from Salt Lake. The speakers were Ronald A. Rasband, Allan Packer, Sister Burton, Elder Perry, and Elder Packer. All of the speakers had some tie to the New England area. They talked a lot about the temple and missionary work. Elder Perry told the members that they need to be assisting the missionaries as much as possible because the best way to help people come to Christ is through their friends and families. It was a powerful talk. 

 At Zone Conference we talked about faith unto repentance and how we all must have that kind of faith. There are so many example of people in the scriptures that had faith unto repentance. They all had so much faith that they knew they could be forgiven. As we are forgiven we can become the person that the Lord wants us to become. They showed us pictures of missionaries in our mission. It was cool to see them. Sister Wilkey took some pictures from my camera without telling me. It was fun to see all of the missionaries and who they have worked with. I'm so blessed to be here. We are part of such a wonderful work! I know that we are so blessed to know about eternal families!! I love you!! Have a great week!!!

  Love,

   Sister Griffin 

This is Callee's sister Lauren,  I have posted the pictures from last week with the letter from last week.  There was a problem of posting them last week.  Hope you can see them.
If you haven't heard you can email Callee.  Her email address is callee.griffin@lds.mail.net.

Hi Mom!

How are you? It was so good to be able to talk to you yesterday! Everyone sounds like they are getting so big. I'm so glad that D came and made you breakfast. I'm sure Matt's talk was great!

 The Ward here is great! They are so excited to have sisters serving in the ward. They have 5 missionaries out serving right now. They have some sisters in the ward that are getting ready to put in their papers. All of the sisters in the ward are so excited to go out teaching with us. We are still working on finding people to teach. We met a woman, named Della, who has been out of the church for many years. She told us that she wants to come back to church. We started reading the Book of Mormon with her and she wants us to teach her the lessons. We are excited to teach her! We are also going to be teaching a recent convert/less active. She got baptized less than a year ago but she hasn't been very consistent at coming to church. She has a lot of health issues. We are excited to teach her too. Both of these ladies are very sweet!

 We are trying to get to know the ward members. We were walking in the rain the other day and some members stopped and picked us up. We had a car fast, which means we didn't use our car for the day. We are doing car fasts to help us find more investigators. We met a man that is very concerned about how families are being brought up. He wasn't interested in taking the lessons but we are going to give him a family proclamation.

 I think I might try and buy a rain coat and maybe some rain boots. I'm going to look around here and I'll let you know if I find anything. You can send me a flower skirt.

  My companion is learning lots. I can't wait to be able to teach more with her. The gospel is true!! We are part of the marvelous work that is hastening.  I was reading in Jacob 5 this week and trying to apply it to now. I feel so blessed to be able to help prune the Lord's vineyard in the last days! I hope I can be the missionary that the Lord needs me to be! I love you!! Have a great week!

   Love,

    Sister Griffin
The first picture is the lobster waiting to be eaten. It was ok. It wasn't as fishy as I thought it was going to be. 

The second picture is me holding the shell of the lobster. I got all the meat out of the lobster and then I ate it.

The third picture is Sister Taylor and me after walking home in the rain. It's hard to tell be we are pretty wet. 

I will try to send the pictures later.  Sorry, 

                                                                Lauren

Mom,

 It sounds like you enjoyed Women's Conference. Do you have to serve at the Conference Center this week?  I'm thinking for Mother's Day I'll call around 6:30pm my time and 4:30pm your time. Does that work? Let me know if I need to call later than that. I don't need a phone card. I'm so excited to talk to you! I'll give you my password for facebook when I talk to you next Sunday. Your package is on it's way!! 

 It is transfers this week. I'm being transferred. I don't know where I'm going but I'm opening a new area and I'm going to be training a new missionary. I'm so nervous! My companion is going to be training a new missionary but she is staying in Topsham. President Wilkey decided to give our transfer call at the Stake Women's Conference in front of the whole stake. We we so surprised when he did that. He talked about how prepared we were when we came out. He told the whole stake that I trained after only being out 5 weeks. It was embarrassing. It has been really hard to say good-bye to people in the ward and my investigators. I have come to love these people so much. The people here are so wonderful and I'm sure the new area I'm going to will have wonderful people in it too. Sister Waite and I were wanting to have another transfer together. We have definitely built a lasting friendship! The Stake Women's Conference was amazing. Sister Wilkey and President Wilkey were the guest speakers. I love hear them speak. President Wilkey talked a little bit on how members can help the missionaries more by being missionaries to their friends. He talked about how to share the gospel with technology. It was a wonderful conference. 

 One of the investigators that the Elders were teaching got baptized yesterday. Sister Waite and I were able to help her get ready for her baptism. She has been waiting for this day for a long time and so has her husband. It was so neat to see her take that step to help her come closer to Christ. We did a lot of service this week for people. Now that the weather has been nicer everyone is working in their yards. We helped a member's neighbor clean up her yard. We talked to her about family history and why it is important while we were helping her. She has been wanting to learn how to do family history. We are going to help her get started. We had an amazing lesson with one of our investigators yesterday. He has been investigating the church for a long long time. We talked about the blessings of going to church with him. He comes to church every week. I told him before we left that I want to hear from him when he receives his answer about the Gospel. He told me he would let me know. I'm going to miss teaching him. His wife has been a member for 5 years now and she is amazing! She has such a strong testimony. 

  One of the members saw us walking the other day and she stopped to talk to us and asked us to go to dinner with her. It was so fun! She took us out for Mexican food. It was delicious. She served a mission in Las Vegas. She was telling us about some friends that she wants to introduce them to the Gospel. I'm excited to hear how it will turn out. I love being a missionary!!! The Lord has blessed me in so many ways! I know that through Faith in Jesus Christ we can do anything. Have a great week!! I love you so much!!!

   Love,

    Sister Griffin

The first picture is of a bridge not too far from our apartment. We run to it for our exercise in the morning. This morning there was a lot of fog and I just love the way this picture looks.

The second picture is of June and her husband before her baptism. June is awesome!! This is the lady that they Elders were teaching.